Stories of video gaming and family

[J T]

My kid brother was pretty good at a few games. He had a Playstation in his room, so we would hang out there and play games sometimes. We had a blast playing Parappa the Rappa together and singing along with the tunes at the same time. "Kick! Punch! It's all in the mind!"

We also had a great sibling rivalry that played out in Street Fighter EX plus Alpha. It wasn't enough to just beat your opponent, you had to annoy them to the brink of insanity. He was super annoyed by Pullum Purna's mid-air throw, which was accompanied by an irritating girly giggle that could send my brother into a rage, so it naturally became my predominant choice of battle tactics. He, on the other hand, knew that I hated Akuma's super move where all of the Japanese kanji symbols fly at the screen and the animation takes a long time to complete and throws off the flow of the game. Naturally, his goal was to use this move on me whenever possible. We both loved to force the other to watch their defeat in the replay as well. This sometimes involved slapping at joysticks.

[TSTR]

My moms could whoop errybody ass in NES Tetris. She never started off less than Level 18. I bet she could still do it, too.

Playing PC Doom with my dad was p great. It was always a back and forth of "oh did you see/fight/find this cool ass thing?" We had a similar experience with taking turns exploring NES Maniac Mansion, to the point where we would leave the machine on pause when we'd leave the house bc we didn't trust the save system. Also played some Mean Bean Machine with him, but other than that he was content to watch me play mostly. He was continually impressed with how graphics and sound had improved over generations.

[Key-Glyph]

I LOVE THIS THREAD.

All right. Heartwarming sibling story:

I'm the younger child in my family, with my brother having 4.5 years on me. We had, and still have, a wonderful relationship, but we weren't so much playmates as kids. After my brother reached a certain developmental point (probably around 8 years of age), we were perpetually occupying different spheres of ability. I could never be as strong or fast or smart as he was because of our age gap, and so I could not function as a reliable second player. (By the time I actually could, he was done with video games forever.)

So, one day I was watching him play TMNT II on NES, which I myself had never attempted. I must have been five. Back then one of the conventions that scared me the most in cartoons was seeing a character's skeleton while they were being electrocuted, so whenever my brother would get up to the Roadkill Rodneys in the first stage, I would cover my eyes or leave the room. On this particular day my brother was noticing my interest in the game and asked if I wanted to play with him. On the one had I was thrilled, because I idolized him, and shared playtime was rare. On the other I was terrified of the Roadkill Rodneys and worried that I would ruin his game. I remember trying to weasel out of it despite how much I secretly wanted to play, and then his insisting that he knew I could do it because the skeleton animation "wasn't so bad," and because he believed I could be brave, and because he knew I could be good. So we settled into it together.

I don't remember specifics so much, but what I do remember was how encouraging my brother was being, and how sensitive he was to my fears. He kept telling me that I was doing great, cheering me on, and when we got up to Rocksteady in April's apartment, he was so proud of me. I remember saying, "You were right! That wasn't so bad! I'm glad you made me try it." We probably didn't get much farther, but it didn't matter. I felt like I'd discovered something about myself that day, and felt this immense sense of pride in the fact that my brother had wanted me to play alongside him and had believed I was made of tougher stuff than I'd thought myself.

Then, a little while later, TMNT II became one of the only NES games that I beat in my childhood.

(I'm going to make a separate post later with mom stories, because I have so many.)

[J T]

Key, you must have been an adorable kid sister. That is a great story.

While KeyGlyph may have been sweet, I was busy being a bad boy when I was as a kid, as you'll find out in this next story.

I grew up in Utah in a very white and very Mormon suburb called Sandy, about 30 minutes south of Salt Lake. I was raised Mormon, but my family wasn't die-hard about it and we eventually split. My cousin lived in a very white and very Mormon suburb called Bountiful, just north of Salt Lake. His family, like almost all of my extended family, was very religious and took Mormonism very seriously. Mormons are very conservative. Sometimes I would stay at his place and my aunt and uncle would babysit me and my brothers. This was a great opportunity to play someone else's videogames.

My cousin, Ben, had a drawer full of games beneath the TV in the basement. I was looking over his collection, and found one stuffed in back. "You can't play that game!" said Ben. "If my parents found out that I have it, they'll kill us!"

"Oh come on, they aren't going to come down here. I'll just play for a little while."

"Ok, but if you hear them coming, turn it off and hide it!"

NSFW (well... not really)

Yes, the oh-so-naughty game was Porky's for the Atari 2600. I guess you had to live in that place at that time to understand how this game could be considered racy and titillating. I really had to use my imagination to see the naked girl in the shower, and even at the time, this seemed like a pretty weak excuse for pornographic material. Nevertheless, it always make me laugh to think that my cousin and I ever worried about getting in trouble for this game.

[winds]

Some of the best and earliest memories I have are playing Super Mario Bros. with my Dad and brother after my brother got the NES for Christmas one year. I always laugh at the memory of my Dad physically moving the controller to the right to make Mario walk right instead of pressing the D-pad, and he would jerk the controller upwards to make him jump. It was hilarious and sweet!

At that age my brother was the bigger gamer and owned all the consoles. I remember whenever he would play either Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat and was close to beating them, he would tell me I was "bad luck" and that I'd have to leave the room and wait outside while he beat it. I would wait patiently at the door while listening to him fight either M. Bison or Shang Tsung and every once in a while scream out "did you win yet??". If he lost, he would tell me that I ruined it because I was still standing too close, if he won, I was welcomed back inside to watch the glorious ending! hahaha.

Lastly, I remember we used to keep our consoles hooked up to the TV in the basement. At the top of the stairs was a light switch that oddly enough turned the power on and off to the outlet that the console and TV were plugged into. If my brother was getting on my nerves, I would go upstairs and just before leaving, I would "accidentally" turn off the light switch hahaha. One time when he was on a good run in Super Mario 64 and hadn't saved in a while, I left and as I was walking up the stairs he shouted "don't turn off the light switch, I haven't saved in a while!". I turned that sucker off and he chased me around the house for a good while hahaha. All in good fun, kind of

[J T]

You are lucky to still be alive winds.

[Key-Glyph]

Oh man J T, that's so funny, because I just finished reading a book about the Atari 2600 that mentioned the Porky's game. Way to bring it all together for me.

I remember whenever he would play either Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat and was close to beating them, he would tell me I was "bad luck" and that I'd have to leave the room and wait outside while he beat it. I would wait patiently at the door while listening to him fight either M. Bison or Shang Tsung and every once in a while scream out "did you win yet??". If he lost, he would tell me that I ruined it because I was still standing too close, if he won, I was welcomed back inside to watch the glorious ending! hahaha.

I love this so much. When I was close to beating a game as a kid, I'd want my mom there so we could watch the ending together, but orchestrating this was not simple. Since there was no guarantee I'd be able to pause the game and run off to get her in time, I needed her on the couch during the final battle -- but if she was watching me during the final battle, I'd get so nervous I'd screw up!

The solution was that she would sit on the couch behind me and close her eyes until I told her it was okay to look.

I recently thought to ask her if she really did close her eyes or if she was just bullshitting me to give me confidence; she swears she truly wasn't looking.

My mom, one of the greatest and most patient human beings on this planet.

[3DSStrider]

My father introduced me to video games. As a toddler I used to love watching him play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on his Dreamcast. All the superheroes flying across the screen shooting lasers and fireballs and such dazzled my young mind. Years later my parents were divorced but I got to visit my dad for my 11th birthday. One of the things we did was visit an arcade (which closed down, a fact that I'm still not over) in the mall. We played an MvC2 machine there among other games. A few days later I went home and started middle school. About a week after my birthday I received the news that father had died in a car crash. That was one of the first and the last game I played with him. That game will always hold a special place in my heart.

[Damm64]

So many cool stories i love this topic. Since all are speaking about brothers ill do it too.

Now a days my brother dosen't play any games at all, he was still playing a bit of FIFA last year but now is completely zero. But when i was... i think 6 years old, he's 3 years older than me, i used to watch him play the SNES quite a bit (since i was a bit bad at games at that age) and one game he would play a lot was donkey kong country 2 and we wanted to know how many times we needed to hit the bosses to defeat them so we would write them down. You may think that we had a notebook or a sheet of paper or something like to write it right? NOPE while he was maratoning the game to beat it one night i stand next to the wall of our room and write there how many hits the bosses took... seriously i dont remember my parents reaction waking up the next morning and seeing this mess on the wall of our room... maybe they didn't say anything or all the blame fell on my brother (probably the later). The perks of being the smaller brother on the house